Katy Pyle is an American ballet dancer and choreographer. They are the founder and artistic director of

Ballez Ballez is an American ballet company based in New York City. The company re-stages classical works and produces original ballets to emphasize LGBTQ representation in ballet. History Ballez was founded in 2011 by Katy Pyle, a lesbian and gender ...

Early life and education

Pyle began studying ballet at the age of 3 and danced with the Texas Youth Ballet. When they were 13 years old they joined the Austin Contemporary Ballet as an apprentice. A year later, they enrolled as a full-time student in pre-professional ballet at the

North Carolina School of the Arts The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is an arts school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It grants high school, undergraduate, and graduate degrees. Founded in 1963 as the North Carolina School of the Arts by then-Governo ...

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in ...

. While training in North Carolina, Pyle was pressured to change their major from classical ballet to contemporary dance due to their body type and movement style. During their contemporary training, Pyle began studying choreography as a discipline. Pyle graduated from the School of the Arts in 1999. They graduated summa cum laude from

Hollins University Hollins University is a private university in Hollins, Virginia. Founded in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary in the historical settlement of Botetourt Springs, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States ...

with a bachelor's degree in multimedia performance art in 2002.

Career

While an undergraduate student at Hollins University, Pyle performed as a drag king and explored post-modern dance forms. After graduating from college, they moved to New York City and danced for companies and in individual works for

Ivy Baldwin Ivy Baldwin (born William Ivy July 31, 1866 – October 8, 1953, in Houston, Texas, he changed his name in later years to Ivy Baldwin so that he and his partner, Thomas Scott Baldwin, could be billed as "The Baldwin Brothers". Ivy Baldwin was an A ...

Faye Driscoll Faye Driscoll is an American dancer, choreographer, and director. Her works have been presented throughout the United States and around the world. On Broadway, Driscoll choreographed Young Jean Lee's play ''Straight White Men''. Driscoll also chor ...

John Jasperse John R. Jasperse (born October 8, 1963) orgenroth 2004 p.187 is an American choreographer and dancer. Since 1990 he has been artistic director and choreographer of the New York City-based John Jasperse Company.John Jasperse performer biography i ...

, Xavier Le Roy, Karinne Keithley, Jennifer Monson, Anna Sperber, Katie Workum, and Young Jean Lee. Pyle began choreographing in collaborations with Eleanor Hullihan, Rebecca Brooks, and Jules Skloot during this time, including the works ''Salute to Ex-Best Friends'', ''Galapagos'', ''The Lady Centaur Show'', ''PS 112'', ''THE WAY: You Make Me Feel'', and ''COVERS''. In 2011 Pyle founded

, an LGBTQ ballet company based in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. With Ballez, Pyle teaches adult ballet classes at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange and has travelled with the program to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, Allied Media Conference, Movement Research, CounterPULSE, Irreverent Dance, University Musical Society,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

, and the Beyond Tolerance Youth Conference. Pyle serves as the Artistic Director of Ballez and has danced with and choreographed for the company in major works including ''The Firebird, a Ballez'', ''Variations on Virtuosity, a Gala with the Stars of Ballez'', and ''Sleeping Beauty & the Beast''. Pyle also choreographed ''Slavic Goddesses'' on six soloists with Ballez for a performance series at the Kitchen as a collaboration with

Paulina Olowska Paulina Olowska (born 1976, Gdańsk) is a Polish painter and photographer, who also works in the field of performance and video-art, social action and applied art. The areas of her artistic explorations are modernist utopias and research on the w ...

. In January 2018 Pyle created a pas de deux for ''PILLOWTALK'' with Kyoung H. Park at The Tank, which travelled to Chicago in August 2018. Pyle teaches ballet practices at

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, commonly referred to as Lang, is the seminar-style, undergraduate, liberal arts college of The New School. It is located on-campus in Greenwich Village in New York City on West 11th Street off 6th Avenue. ...

and has set Ballez choreography on students at

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacifi ...

, and

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and h ...

as a guest artist in residence.

Personal life

Pyle identifies as genderqueer and

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyle, Katy Living people American arts administrators American ballerinas American contemporary dancers American women choreographers American choreographers American drag kings Genderqueer people Hollins University alumni Lesbian entertainers LGBT choreographers LGBT dancers University of North Carolina School of the Arts alumni Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts faculty Women arts administrators Year of birth missing (living people) Non-binary drag performers